Celina's boys capture title

Western Buckeye League Swimming Meet

By Gary R. Rasberry

Celina's boys swimming team completed their unscathed run through the Western Buckeye League season and captured the league championship for the first time since the 2006-07 campaign on Wednesday at the Defiance YMCA.

The Bulldogs, who won every meet and invitational contested this season, held off perennial rival Shawnee 249-226 to claim the crown. Wapakoneta (214) was third with Ottawa-Glandorf (203) fourth in the team standings. St. Marys finished sixth place with 98 points. It's the eighth league title all-time for Celina's boys, one shy of Shawnee's nine.

"They did a nice job," said Celina coach Matt May, who earned the Boys' Swimming Coach of the Year award that goes to the winning team's coach. "I was a little concerned (about) taking some depth away without our B and C relays in there (only one event relay per school permitted at the meet), because I know we've been scoring (with) them all year. Everybody stepped it up a notch."

Ottawa-Glandorf captured the girls' league title with a score of 254 1/2 to edge Wapakoneta (245), and Celina (203 1/2) finished third. St. Marys was sixth with 107 points.

Celina's boys won two events in addition to last week's diving win by Chandler Kimmel, and Tyus Temple was a factor in both Bulldogs' victories. He earned an individual win by taking first place in the 100-yard butterfly with a time of 53.27 seconds, which was four seconds better than runner-up Nick Fenbert of Ottawa-Glandorf. The other Celina win came in the 200 freestyle relay with Temple swimming the final leg, following Jared Fleagle, Ryan Miller and Mason Baker. The Bulldogs' quartet finished with a time of 1:33.95, 0.35 seconds ahead of Shawnee.

The Bulldogs also finished second in the 200 medley relay with Garrett Weininger joining Fleagle, Temple and Baker. Temple finished second in the 100 freestyle behind Wapakoneta's Charlie Sutton, who set a new league record with a time of 49.27 seconds.

"The boys took care of business," said May. "Won some key events and Tyus had a good day. It just ended up it was meant to be for us."

For Celina's girls, the 200 freestyle relay quartet of Megan Muhlenkamp, Madison Weininger, Cami Dzendzel and Michaela Wenning earned a league title as they finished nearly a second ahead of Shawnee in a time of 1:42.73.

Wenning added second-place finishes in the 50 and 100 freestyles and set a school record in the 50 free. Wenning, Muhlenkamp, Weininger, and Dzendzel also finished second in the 400 free relay.

"Micheala really stepped it up," said May. "Really had some awesome splits that we as coaches didn't think she was capable of at this point of the season. She was phenomenal."

St. Marys brought home one league title as Jared Duebler took nearly a second off the league record in the 100 backstroke, finishing in 54.88 seconds.

Molly Menker paced the Lady Roughriders with a second-place finish in the 200 freestyle.

Celina will swim Saturday at Sidney to wrap up the regular season before postseason action starts Feb. 8.

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